Thursday, May 11, 2006

The Hudson River and the Caskill Mountains

Thomas Cole (American, 1801-1848)
The Titan's Goblet, 1833


The Wild
Friends of my heart, lovers of Nature’ works,
Let me transport you to those wild blue mountains
That rear their summits near the Hudson’s wave
Though not the loftiest that begirt the land,
They yet sublimely rise, and on their heights
Your souls may have a sweet foretaste of heaven,
And traverse wide boundless.
From this rock
The nearest to the sky, lets look out
Upon the earth, as the first swell of day
Is bearing back the duskiness of night
But lo! A sea of mist o’er all beneath:
An ocean, shoreless, motionless and mute,
No rolling swell is there, no sounding surf;
Silent and solemn all: the stormy main
To stillness frozen, while the crested waves
Leaped in the whirlwind, and the loosen’d foam
Flew o’er the angry deep.
See! Now ascends
The Lord of Day, waking with pearly fire
The dormant depths. See how his glowing breath
The rising surges kindles; lo! They heave
Like golden sands upon Sahara’s gales.
Those airy forms disporting from the mass,
Like winged ships, sail o’er the wondrous plain
Beautiful vision! Now the veil is rent,
And the coy earth her virgin bosom bares,
Slowly unfolding the enraptured gaze
Her thousand charms.

~Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole (American. 1801-1848)
Romantic Landscape, 1826
Thomas Cole is one of my favorite American Painters. I have been very lucky to see both of these paintings in real life. Now, this weekend I will be visiting the The Thomas Cole National Historic Site situated between the Hudson River and the Caskill Mountains in Greene County, for a much needed R&R. I'll be back on Sunday...Everyone have a great weekend!



N Posted by Rain at 5/11/2006 01:48:00 AM

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Happy Birthday!


This is my niece, Alexis.
Happy 4th Birthday!
We love you!

N Posted by Rain at 5/10/2006 09:47:00 AM

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Bag O Excuses

I’ve just spent a couple of hours with my son.
He talked.
I listened.
We spoke about the last time we were together and how I told him about the bag that he carries on his side.
I call that bag His Bag o’ Excuses.
And let me tell you Punky is quick to get at them.
Sometimes he even picks up two of them.
Today he said that he had thought about that Bag o’ Excuses.
Punky said that he wasn’t trying to reach to the bag so much.
“I just thought that it gets difficult carry it with you all the time, because like everyone else I carried that bag with me too, for a time.”
Punky thought that was funny, and said it made me more human.
Imagine that.

That reminds me of the time when I was in fifth grade and I along with two of my best friends D and R were on our way out to the field for recess.
I was stopped by the school secretary and asked to go to the teachers lounge to deliver a message to Mr. Schultz, my fourth grade teacher.
Back then, in 1972, that was considered a huge honor.
The. Teachers. Lounge.
D immediately wanted to go along with me, and R said she wanted to go play tether ball.
D said, “Oh she is just jealous, she will get over it.”
Both D and I wanted to be teachers when we grew up, because teachers were held right up there on a pedestal along with other role models that we had.
On the way to the lounge, D and I talked about how it would be possible to someday teach at VLM Elementary School.
D would teach fifth grade and I would teach sixth grade.
Life was good. We both had a plan.
We stopped when we came to the door, D and I both held our collective breaths as I slowly opened the door and stepped inside.
All the teachers stopped talking, and stared at the both of us.
There was our teacher Ms. Witrock, holding a cigarette in her mouth.
Miss Appleton, Mr. Grey and Mr. French, all smoking!
Mr. Schultz was pouring Jack Daniels into our Principal, Mrs. Wheaton’s glass.
Miss Witrock suddenly taking out the cigarette out of her mouth and putting it behind her back said, “You do not belong in here, please leave now!”
I quietly explained that I had a note for Mr. Schultz from the school secretary.
Walking around the center table, I handed the note to Mr. Schultz and ran out as quickly as possible.
D and I spent the entire rest of our recess hiding in the girls bathroom, trying to come to terms with what we had witnessed.
It certainly was a life changing experience, for me anyway.
To be continued…maybe
Thank you for stopping by

N Posted by Rain at 5/09/2006 12:22:00 AM

Monday, May 08, 2006

Monday Hunks


N Posted by Rain at 5/08/2006 02:22:00 AM